


Live While You're Young

by zooeyscigar



Category: One Direction (Band), Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, Noah just really loves, and Henry is kinda amazing, not really a crossover, one direction - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 23:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zooeyscigar/pseuds/zooeyscigar
Summary: The stereo of the Pig is a hotly contested zone.Ronan has control most of the time, but when Noah sits shotgun, pop music reigns supreme.Gansey sings along with Adele, Blue likes Adam Levine's voice, Adam can get with Bruno Mars and Usher, and Ronan would kill you with a look if you implied that he might enjoy Taylor Swift.And Noah... well. Noah likes One Direction.Noah doesn’t just like them, though. HelovesOne Direction.





	Live While You're Young

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Faerieoftara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faerieoftara/gifts).



It was rare that anyone besides Ronan sat in the shotgun seat of the Pig. There was a reason for this. Ronan was dead set on having the choice of music, and Gansey’s rule, regretfully or no, was that whoever sat in the front passenger’s seat got to play DJ. 

So, the gang listened to a lot of Ronan’s horrifically angry electronic music. A Lot. Noah kinda hated it. But then again, Noah didn’t have to even be inside the car if he didn’t want to. And Ronan, loveable asshole that he was, reminded him of that fact anytime Noah protested. 

It’s not like he really got _ that _ irritated by the music. There were some perks to being dead, after all. His senses weren’t very fine-tuned unless he specifically needed them to be, so he just sort of let his hearing fade out and stared out the window a lot. The point was to be sharing space with the gang, pressed shoulder to shoulder in the back seat, feeling like he belonged again. Pretending he was a part of things that happened in the real world. He just wished the music in those moments matched his mood better.

Once in a blue moon, however, Noah remembered about the rule early enough to steal Ronan’s seat and adamantly defend his place. Ronan didn’t really have the heart to throw him out, most likely because Noah rarely showed such determination and no one wanted to quell his desires when he had them. 

Of course, that sentiment changed dramatically when Noah gained control of the radio, because he always put on the poppiest of stations and sang along to whatever songs played, no matter how many groans came from the back seat. Gansey never said a thing, for or against, about Noah’s music choices, but Noah paid attention and could tell that Gansey’s favorite was Adele. It was possible Gansey even mouthed along to the words on “Rolling in the Deep” and Noah was certain he’d caught Gansey whistling the tune to “Skyfall” when preoccupied with studying in Monmouth. Blue would roll her eyes at Maroon 5 a lot, but she also had to admit that the lead singer’s voice was beautiful when he wasn’t over-synthesizing it. Adam liked Bruno Mars and Usher, though he’d protest that it was because of how much they reminded him of Michael Jackson. Ronan categorically refused to like any of it — he wouldn’t be caught dead — but his fingers tapped to the rhythm for Taylor Swift more often than anyone else. 

And Noah... well. Noah liked One Direction. 

Noah didn’t just  _ like _ them, though. He  _ loved _ One Direction. Their music was flirty and fun and boppy and endearing, and reminded him of everything he loved about being alive. They also reminded him of the boy bands of his era, not to mention the fact that they were all  _ beautiful _ young men. 

Everyone else  _ hated _ when a 1D song came on, because Noah would just light up and bounce in his seat and sing at the top of his voice, usually  _ to _ someone in the car. That someone was often Gansey, and Noah couldn’t help but delight in the soft smile and slow flush of his cheeks that came from Noah singing lines like:

_ “You don't know you're beautiful, oh oh /  _ _ That's what makes you beautiful” _

Or to Blue:

_ “ _ _ Oh and if you walk away I know I’ll fade /  _ _ ‘Cause there is nobody else” _

To Adam:

_ “If I let you know, I'm here for you /  _ _ Maybe you'll love yourself like I love you oh”  _

To Ronan:

_ “But there's nothing to be afraid of / Even when the night changes /  _ _ It will never change me and you” _

To them all:

__ “You and me got a whole lot of history  
_ We could be the greatest thing that the world has ever seen _ __  
_ You and me got a whole lot of history _ _  
_ __ So don't let it go, we can make some more, we can live forever”

It was all in good fun, and no one actually got _ annoyed  _ with Noah, he was pretty sure. Catching Ronan’s dismissive but subtly fond eyeroll in the rearview mirror convinced Noah that Ro wasn’t putting his heart into all the gagging sounds and groans and demands to turn the music off. Blue had even confessed once how glad she was to see Noah so happy — so much so that she looked forward to 1D coming on the radio. Adam once admitted their music was actually pretty listenable for bubblegum pop. Gansey never said anything, but when Noah found a cardboard tube in the corner of his bedroom with a 1D poster in it, he noticed it had been addressed to Richard C. Gansey III. 

If your friends aren’t going to share in your obsession, the next best thing is for them to tolerate and even lowkey encourage it. 

Noah couldn’t have explained what it was about the band that he loved. Their music brightened his day, but so did the boys themselves. If you left Noah to his own devices near a computer, he would fall down a youtube video clickhole and you’d have to help him claw his way back up again for air. By then he’d be nine music videos and six interviews in, and he wouldn’t be able to stop smiling the rest of the day. You would never be able to convince him it wasn’t time well spent. 

Once he even tried to decide which of the gang most corresponded to which of the band. It was a ridiculous thought experiment and he didn’t share it with anyone, but it did make him giggle sometimes to think of Gansey as Harry, Ronan as Zayn, Adam as Liam, Blue as Niall, and himself as Louis. Louis was a stretch for him now that he was dead, but there was something about 1D that made him remember how sweet life tasted, and it made him hunger to be as much a part of it as possible. He would never be as high-energy or carefree as he once was, but dancing around Monmouth to “Live While We’re Young” while the boys were at school was the closest thing he’d found in a long time. 

As everything started to fall apart around and within him near the end of the Glendower quest, the best way Noah found to ground himself in his humanity was to imagine he was in the front seat of the Pig with Adam and Ronan slouched together the back, Blue stretched out with her legs over their laps, the windows down, Gansey’s left hand hanging out to catch the wind, and Noah singing along to “Girl Almighty” at the top of his voice.

_ “There's something happening here /  _ _ I hope you feel what I'm feeling too” _

It didn’t save him, but it helped. 

To be honest, that feeling of carefree belonging was what gave him the courage to spend the last of his energy doing what would both save Gansey and set him on the track to finding all of the gang and stepping into his destiny in the first place. 

_ To save a savior. _

There had never been a more worthy cause — Noah had known that for what felt like forever — and it was the only thing he could have done. But the memory allowed him to feel good about it as he faded into nothing.

Ending and beginning in the same moment. It felt right. Whole.

Human. 

 

~~~

 

Henry was still exulting in the fact that he’d beat Ronan out for shotgun in the Pig when the song came on. It was such a rare occurrence to get to play DJ on the road that he celebrated by putting on his most happy, upbeat playlist and piping it from his phone to the car radio — via an ancient tape converter with a cord dangling out of the player, no less. The indignity of the set up was worth it for the groans from the back seat. 

Henry had cackled and reveled in inflicting pop music on the gang, especially Ronan. They were all good sports about it, though, Gansey in particular, which was amusing. And endearing. 

But the good-humored griping had stopped suddenly when the playlist took a slow turn and “Spaces” by One Direction started up. Henry thought for sure he’d have to defend his enjoyment of the boy band du jour, but everyone got real quiet and listened with more attention than Henry had ever witnessed. 

After recovering from the first shock of the gang’s silent acceptance of his musical choices, Henry caught up to the story the song was telling and he nearly choked. The band kept repeating the phrase:  _ Who’s gonna be the first to say goodbye _ and Henry repented every decision he’d made in the past twenty minutes.

There was no way the gang wasn’t thinking about their friend Noah. 

He moved to skip the rest of the song to not ruin the mood completely, but Gansey shot a hand out to rest on his forearm. “Don’t. It brings him closer. Feels like he’s in the car with us.”

Henry nodded and glanced into the backseat to see Blue’s head resting on Ronan’s shoulder and Adam’s fingers entwined with both of theirs. The mood was now way too somber for a Sunday afternoon picnic, but he decided to keep quiet and made sure to put on a very upbeat song right after. 

It took Henry a while to realize that it wasn’t just that song that made them all think of Noah, but the entirety of One Direction’s oeuvre. Which, for a guy who loved lightening the mood, was like walking through a musical minefield. So many of their songs were such delightful, upbeat bops, that Henry felt so ineffectual when the moment just screamed for “Best Song Ever” and he had to substitute last minute with Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”. It wasn’t exactly a failure, but it was  _ not ideal. _

Henry tried so hard to be respectful and not ruin everyone's day every time they hung out and he wanted to put music on, but he must have overdone it. At some point Gansey expressed regret, in the innocently wistful way that only he could have pulled off, that he hadn’t heard a 1D song in  _ so long. _ To Henry’s complete surprise, the rest of the gang nodded in agreement. 

Henry gaped at them as if betrayed. “But I thought those songs made you sad?”

“We’re always sad about Noah, honey.” Blue stroked his arm gently, a tired smile creasing around her eyes.  “Those songs help us remember him in his most cheerful moments, which isn’t a bad thing at all.” 

“Well, shit. If I’d known you  _ liked _ hearing them, I would have been playing them all summer.”

“Not  _ all _ the time, for God’s sake. Save us our sanity.” Ronan’s dismissive snarl held something else behind it — an out of place sense of self preservation, possibly? 

When Adam brushed Ronan’s arm in the same way Blue had just touched Henry, he got it. Bittersweetness was a potent flavor, but not one people could handle a lot of at once. 

He went about editing all his playlists once again, now to include a smattering of 1D songs, always with bangers right after them to keep the feelings they brought up from lingering. As far has he could tell, the tactic worked better than he could have hoped. 

Friend group achievement unlocked!

 

~~~

 

It was the eve of the anniversary of Gansey’s second death — really he needed to stop racking up these sorts of experiences — and he was feeling a bit fragile. 

Part of that feeling was the fact that this particular date was also the anniversary of the first time he and Blue had kissed,  _ and _ the moment that Noah truly left them forever. Ronan called it Noah’s feast day, which was a Catholic holy day that marked the martyrdom of a saint — an apropos descriptor if there ever was one. But combining that with his rebirth and an anniversary with Blue made for an odd combination of celebration and grief that left him feeling shaky and frayed. He wasn’t looking forward to dealing with that all day tomorrow.

Thankfully, the gang had made arrangements to all spend the day together and Gansey was already anticipating getting to have all the pieces of his heart in the same place. It was going help a lot. 

But on the evening before, as Gansey entered Monmouth, he found a slim package had been stuffed through the mail slot. It was addressed to not only him, but Ronan, Adam, and Blue as well. Not Henry, noticeably. 

It was a padded mailer and whatever was inside felt thin and square and rigid. DVD? CD? Very thin hardcover book? From — he checked the stamp and postmark — the UK? 

_ What the hell? _

There was no way Mallory had sent something, and besides, he would have addressed it in his old-fashioned, shaky hand, not with a printed label. Gansey puzzled over it for another few minutes but managed to not let his curiosity get the best of him. He set it aside to open when the rest of the gang showed up the next day.

They were all assembled at Monmouth by noon, and right away Gansey presented the package to the group. They immediately opened it and dumped its contents onto the bed. Inside was a homemade CD with five signatures in sharpie on the cover and a handwritten note in square, boyish all-caps. Everyone stared down at the CD and note, then back up at Gansey with equal looks of incomprehension — everyone, that was, except Henry. 

His smug smile gave the game away. Gansey still didn’t understand fully, but he pulled Henry close and hugged him tight as Ronan and Blue inspected the gift. 

“Is this... what the shit?” Ronan had opened the CD and Blue’s eyes were traveling over the note.

“Who’s it from?” Adam said as he stepped close to read over her shoulder.

“Um, Harry... _Ohmygod._ Is this a note from Harry  _ Styles? _ ” Blue sounded more shocked than anything, but it was Ronan who had a sudden bout of fanboy awe.

“Are you fucking with me? Jesus. Look at his  _ handwriting _ .” 

“Put the CD on, asshole, come on.” Adam’s voice was oddly sharp. It seemed he couldn’t handle the suspense. 

“Do you even have a CD drive here, Gansey?” 

He was ready for this possibility, actually, and pointed to the ancient discman plugged into the computer speakers on his desk. Ronan snorted in amusement and popped the disc in place. 

Blue turned to Henry and just said, “How?” 

He shrugged. “My mom knows James Corden’s mom — long story. She took me to a taping of his show on a night that Harry was performing. He’s an absolute sweetheart of a person. Last month I sent Harry a message about doing something for Noah’s day, and he’s such a darling, he sent this.” Henry waved at the discman.

On cue, Ronan pressed play, and they all sat on the bed in silence and listened to all five of the One Direction boys — all of whom were currently on hiatus — cover a song a cappella. 

It was... beautiful. Their voices blended in such a natural, almost casual way that Gansey couldn’t help imagining them all huddled around one mic, doing the whole thing in just a couple takes. And the lyrics...

__ “I lit a fire with the love you left behind  
__ And it burned wild and crept up the mountainside  
__ I followed your ashes into outer space  
__ I can't look out the window, I can't look at this place  
_ I can't look at the stars  
_ __ They make me wonder where you are”

Gansey wanted to weep — a sharp pain hollowed out his chest as his throat filled up with tears. He leaned against Henry who immediately put his arms around Gansey’s shoulders and held him close. Ronan and Adam were flanking Blue, thankfully, because Gansey could hear sniffles coming from at least two of them. 

When the song ended, Blue read the note out loud:

_ Hello, gang! _

_ Heard about your lovely Noah and just wanted to send a little something in remembrance. The lads got together recently and we thought you’d like this cover by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. It’s a really rough demo but it’s just for you, so I hope you like it. I hope he would have, too. _

_ All the Love ♡  
_ _ Harry Styles _

Her voice was thick with emotion. “Hen, darling, this is... Thank you. What a wonderful gift.”

Everyone agreed and engulfed Henry in a massive hug pile on the bed. They cuddled together for the next hour, replaying the CD periodically as they reminisced about Noah and geeked out about the fact that 1D sang a song to them. 

They attempted to guess what reaction Noah would have had to the whole thing, and came to a general consensus of a massive freakout that included tearing through the whole building and whooping at the top of his voice, then lying on the floor in ecstasy listening to the song on repeat for an entire day. 

The idea made everyone giggle through their tears. 

It was Adam who first suggested it, but then Henry insisted that they all make a quick thank you video to the band for him to send along. It allowed them to feel connected to another chosen family of five who were thousands of miles across the sea. 

It managed to be a good day, after all. Nowhere near as harrowing as Gansey had expected. They'd gotten to laugh and cry and cuddle together, and everything felt just a little bit more possible afterwards. It seemed like just what Noah would have wanted.

After all, he’d only ever wanted them to live while they were young.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, Tara, for this prompt. I was so lovely to write this!  
> I never would have thought these two fandoms could collide, and then we made it happen.  
> <3


End file.
